Thoughts on the UK DMA’s 2009 Client Email survey.

Each email an organisation sends to its’ customers forms part of that brand’s reputation; not just those thought of as email marketing. What does the customer think about the email confirming a purchase? How about the emails answering questions post purchase? Do organisations even think of these as part of their brand building?

Organisations know their email marketing is operationally important, particularly to drive sales in this difficult economic climate. Yet only 23% of the respondents could calculate the value of an email address to an organisation. How do they make a return on investment argument within their company for email marketing?

They report on the Open and Click rates. These are the most common measures of success rather than being able to calculate the value of an email address.

Their emphasis should be on integrating email campaigns with other channels. Those marketers who have tried this approach showed improvements across all channels. These can range from customer acquisition channels, like search engine marketing, to encouraging advocacy with loyalty. Add some good use of metrics and segmentation techniques to the mix then marketing performance can go through the roof.

The integrated approach would also improve a brand’s reputation just by bringing a consistent message into the mix. The better a brand’s reputation the higher the open and click through rate from email marketing. So it’s amazing that only just over a third of marketers rate sender reputation as the most important factor in deliverability.

Other interesting conclusions of the report are:

70% of marketers expect expenditure on email to increase over the next 12 months coming at the expense of other channels, notably direct mail and print/press advertising

The most popular email tactic is the regular e-newsletter (used by 78% of marketers)

There is still much room for improvement, though, the use of: welcome messages, win-back campaigns and advanced trigger emails

Less than half of marketers have a strategy concerning maximum email contact frequencies

12% do not know how many emails an address could potentially receive each month. Given that people regard “too many emails” as a reason for reporting messages as spam, this is a weakness that needs addressing

Amazingly only 27% of marketers segment their lists into six or more different audiences.

Marketers are removing inactive addresses from their lists without first conducting a dedicated reactivation campaign.

Almost 40% of marketers do not offer website traffic a way of signing up for emails, representing a huge missed opportunity.

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2 Comments

Nicky

This gives a great insight into how much of an impact emails really do have on the image people have on companies.

Coming out of University I signed up to many employment sites and still daily I receive around 100 emails in total regarding new jobs and graduate opportunities. However I delete most of them and find the amount I get sent it impossible to look through at ease. Many sites send 5 or 6 daily which is more of an inconvenience rather than an invitation to open the emails.

I must say that the point about an increase in expenditure with regards to email is something very interesting which I had not thought about, until reading this.

November 25, 2009 at 3:05 pm

Jemma

A brand’s reputation plays a big part for me on the success of their email marketing. Out of the several newsletters I receive, I look forward to receiving some as I know what I am getting and I trust the deals offered. Others are for informational purposes to inform me about music concerts and events around London. Then there are the ones I simply delete as their presence in my inbox is annoying!

My biggest annoyance however is when you can’t unsubscribe from an e-newsletter or you have to register in order to be entitled to something. The push for personal details is a massive turn off, as is a barrarge of emails each month, and it leaves me with a negative impression of the company.

Having a well thought out campaign and understanding who the target audience is is the key to success.